What Aristotle can teach us about personality disorder - University of ...

their central role in the good life quite generally. In some sense, these traits constitute the basic
capacity to find a way to balance between extremes, and do what the situation requires despite
pressures, from within or from the world, to behave in ways that are not for the best. Impulsivity – a
tendency to act without thinking, out of whatever desire or emotion grips you in the moment –
stands in the way of moderation and temperance. Traits that lie at the other extreme from
impulsivity perhaps include an excess of duty, a lack of spontaneity, a kind of perfectionism. These
too express, if not a lack of moderation or temperance, then too much of it.
Why is impulsivity detrimental to wellbeing? Most obviously, if you act without thinking, on the spur
of the moment, you may act out of anger, or fear, or shame, and so may behave in ways that you
later regret. Such emotions do not typically lead to actions in your own or others’ best interests. But
impulsivity does not just lead to regret. It also compromises the possibility of strong and stable
relationships – with others, but also, I suggest, with your future self.
Aristotle would recognize the adverse effect that impulsivity can have on interpersonal relationships.
If you are impulsive, then others cannot rely on you to keep promises and see through
commitments, or to look out for their best interests when in the grip of strong desires and emotions.
An impulsive person is unpredictable and volatile, rather than reliable and measured, and this
naturally compromises their relationship with others. But impulsivity also has an adverse effect on a
person’s capacity for self-autonomy and self-creation. These are central post-Enlightenment values,
much more important to us in modern society than they were in ancient Greece.
If you are impulsive, it is not simply that others cannot rely on you. You cannot rely on yourself to
keep your promises and commitments and look out for yourself either – to maintain a reliable,
measured way of being over time. For this reason, impulsivity is equally bad for your relationship
with yourself. Your present self cannot be trusted to act in your future self’s best interests. And even
more, your present self cannot trust your future self to act in its own then best interests. This may
be part of what makes changing entrenched patterns so hard for those who are impulsive. Why
should you make the effort to change entrenched patterns today – an effort which will demand
great willpower, if you are impulsive – if you cannot trust yourself to do the same tomorrow?
Consider, for example, an addict struggling to abstain from their drug of choice. Forgoing the drug is
hard. Perhaps it is their habitual way of coping with intense psychological distress. There is little
reason to break the cycle of use and make the effort to abstain today, and bear that distress, if they
cannot trust themselves not to relapse tomorrow. Why bother?
This is why impulsivity not only compromises a person’s capacity for relationships with others, but
equally their capacity for self-autonomy and self-creation. It blocks a person’s ability to shape the
course of their life over time – to fashion a life that expresses their long-standing, well-considered,
values, hopes, and goals, as opposed to whatever desires or emotions grip them in the moment. To
use the language of modernity, it stops a person from making their life their own. It thus presents a
double impediment to the good life as we now understand it.
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